Let's dance...

I called my business Recess on purpose.  While it is true that one way to describe my work is that people pay me to make them do things they don’t want to do, that’s not the whole story.  I do my best to help people like doing stuff that is good for them.  I try to bring a sense of play to fitness because we tend to do more of what brings us joy.

 

It is absolutely true that some things are joyful in themselves and others are joyful at one remove.  We need both.  What do I mean?  Take dancing.  Dancing is fun.  Every human culture that I can think of has had some kind of dancing (or else a need to frown upon dancing, which proves my point in a different way).  Kids do it spontaneously.  It plays a part in celebrations, religious ceremonies, and high school rituals.  No one needs to make us dance, at least before we get all self-conscious.  It’s just joyful.

 

Burpees, on the other hand, don’t make very many people joyful in and of themselves.  They are joyful at a remove (no, not because we rejoice when they’re not part of the workout).  We get joy from burpees because of what we get from having done burpees—more energy, strength, stamina for the things that make us happy.  Maybe burpees give us joy by way of chasing our kids around for hours or by helping us find the perfect outfit to knock someone special’s socks off.  We have to wait a little for the burpee kind of joy.

 

So when I design workouts or when I talk about what we all need to do for fitness, I try to include both kinds of joy.  The first kind is easy:  we pick stuff we like to do, like dancing or biking or curling or whatever.  The second kind requires a two-pronged approach.  We keep in mind the secondary kinds of joy we want to achieve by doing the less joyful exercise, and we employ coping techniques.

 

Some of my favorite coping techniques are:  friends, loud music, bribery, and speed.  Other people like classes, fancy workout clothes, or special tools.  Whatever works.

 

Let’s play.